Fast Feet, Healing Hands

For months the small concrete building sat unchanged on the earthen lot behind the church. Its outer walls took on the color of the dry season, a reddish brown mixing into gray. The windows and metal roof were in place, but the doors were still only an idea. Before several men in their Sunday finest ushered me through the unlit halls and vacant rooms on a tour of the half-completed facility, I chanced a glance above one of the empty door jambs. A hand-painted sign read:

Biribiriet A.I.C. Dispensary Hall STEPS & C.D.F. Project.

If this image doesn't strike you as the fulfillment of years of hard work and prayer, then perhaps you've never traveled to Biribiriet, Kenya. The birthplace of Wesley Korir, the 2012 Boston Marathon champion, this small village of subsistence farms sits on a vast high plain near the equator. The drive to Kitale, the nearest city of note, takes at least an hour on the unimproved roads in the region, the walk closer to a day. Neither was an option when 12-year-old Eliud Cheruyot was bitten by a snake 20 years ago. If even a facsimile of this hospital had been in place, an anti-venom likely would have been available and young Eliud would have survived. Instead, Korir lost a brother that day.

Halfway across the globe, Sara Bei (later to become Hall) was growing up comfortably in Santa Rosa, Calif. Before winning the 2000 Foot Locker high school championship in cross country, a race that served as a precursor to her later collegiate and professional success, she made a series of trips to Mexico with her high school youth group. "Seeing the poverty outside the U.S. borders at an early age really shapes what you want to do with your life," she says. "When you see injustice like that, it's hard to just go on and live a comfortable life and not want to do anything about it."

Korir agreed. Though a successful runner at the University of Louisville, it wasn't until he won back-to-back Los Angeles Marathons that he could find a way to support the community that raised him. The Kenyan Kids Foundation was founded in 2010. "Empowering people through education, through providing them with good health care and through farming" are the organization's primary goals, Korir says. "Right now there is a lot of famine in Kenya. And there are a lot of people dying because of food insecurity. If I go there and start giving people food, I feel I'll be helping them at this moment. But I want to empower the poor people so that next year they won't have to worry about having enough food to eat, and even have enough food to sell it and help themselves economically." Korir and his foundation take this same emancipating approach to education and health care.

Meanwhile, Hall and her husband, Ryan, had formed their own nonprofit the year before. As they became acquainted with Korir at various races around the country, they heard the story of his brother dying from a black mamba bite. When Korir mentioned building a hospital in his honor, the Hall STEPS Foundation immediately pledged its support.

To raise the necessary funds, the Halls started the 26.2 Challenge. "We've seen the power of the running community when it rallies around something," Hall says. "Runners are incredibly motivated, they're incredibly passionate and when they put their minds to something, it happens." Traveling across Texas, where Ryan ran his 59:43 American record in the half marathon, the Halls asked local runners to pledge $26.20, then matched those donations. All told they raised $13,100, half of what was needed.

That figure helped the hospital break ground, but didn't allow for it to be properly furnished or staffed. It remained a shell of its potential. That all changed on April 16 when Korir stormed down Boylston Street in victory. Less than two months removed from a battle against typhoid fever, Korir had defeated big names like Geoffrey Mutai and Gebre Gebremariam in the searing heat of Boston. That victory brought with it $150,000.

"I really couldn't believe it," Korir says. "It's something that's really hard to believe. I was very thankful to God, just for the way everything was. Honestly, I went into this race not feeling I was prepared [because of illness]. My goal really was to run my own race and do the best I can. And I did run the best I can. It was just a miracle to me. A miracle. It's amazing to me to think about how far God can bring you."

Just before the race, the Halls had confirmed to Korir that they would finish funding the hospital. Now, standing on the dais with a laurel wreath proudly perched on his head, Korir was able to ponder the suddenly brighter future of his organization. "We're going bigger now," he says. "We're going to go far." Closing the gap on public and private schools in Kenya, increasing food security and upping the number of scholarships available are just some of the possibilities Korir imagines thanks to one glorious run in Massachusetts.

As for the Halls, they continue to grow and diversify their organization, sponsoring foundations run by U.S. Olympic trials champion Meb Keflezighi and champion triathlete Chris Lieto. They've also offered a grant to Back on My Feet, a group that empowers the homeless by preparing them to run a road race. With Ryan already on the team for the London Olympic Games and Sara trying hard to join him in the 3,000m steeplechase or 5,000m, life is unlikely to slow anytime soon. That sounds perfect to her.

"It was always our intention to mesh social justice with our running," Sara says. "I actually didn't know if I was going to go into professional running after college because I'd always seen myself doing development work in a Third World country. I knew that when I did decide to run I was going to have it be more than just about my own achievements."

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Runner's World participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.